Cörk Bord: a Nordic Noir investigative Role-Playing Game

Cörk Børd is a standalone 60+ page RPG and investigative toolkit, powered by the grim engine of Mörk Borg, but sharpened to a razor-edge to focus on emotional collapse, slow moral ruin, and relentless clue-hunting. Nordic Noir meets existential horror—every clue leaves scars, and every solution lies buried beneath the weight of your broken life.

Why Cörk Børd?

Mörk Borg delivered a bleak fantasy world steeped in doom, corruption, and rapid demise. But what if this grim despair found its way into our world today?

Enter Nordic Noir—dark crime fiction set in cold Scandinavian landscapes, populated by weary investigators who press on despite their own ruin. These heroes aren't clean. They aren't unbroken. They're just people who keep fighting because someone must.

When these two shadows collide, battered and desperate, Cörk Børd crawls from the wreckage, offering a hauntingly immersive game of investigative horror.

What is Cörk Børd?

• A complete RPG built on the Mörk Borg system—fully standalone
• Packed with tables, tools and guidance, perfect for hacking into other Borgs and RPGs
• Structured investigation mechanics, featuring the Clue Chain system
• Systems for emotional baggage, personal breakdown and investigative flow
• Written and designed by the creator of Cthulhu Hack and The Dee Sanction, illustrated by entirely human hands

Cörk Børd Classes?

Dive into darkness as one of six damaged archetypes, or play classless and claw your way forward through grit, determination and a range of feats. Choose your ruin:

• Broken Inspector – haunted by cases gone cold
• Media Hound – obsessed with the next big story
• Crusading Lawyer – seeking justice even if it breaks you
• Addict Snitch – trapped between loyalty and habit
• Grief Counsellor – burdened by the weight of others’ pain
• Youth Cultist – fleeing shadows that still whisper your name

Each class is uniquely equipped, burdened with dark histories and haunted by their personal Baggage.

What's a Clue Chain?

A Clue Chain is a structured method for creating and running investigations in Cörk Børd. Instead of exploring dungeons or randomly encountering monsters, players follow a trail of clues—each linked logically to the next—leading from the initial crime to the grim truth behind it.

Why use a Clue Chain?

For the GM: It simplifies planning. You prepare a clear path of linked scenes and evidence, making complex mysteries manageable. It also maintains high narrative tension—each clue found deepens the sense of dread.

For Players: It provides a sense of progress and urgency, as every clue discovered comes with emotional and personal risks. Solving the case is rewarding, but each step carries the danger of suffering "Baggage"—the toll taken on characters' sanity and personal lives.

How is a Clue Chain any different to a typical RPG adventure?

A Clue Chain emphasises narrative tension, psychological risk, and investigative gameplay. Every discovery has consequences. Every decision leaves emotional scars.

In Cörk Børd, the real enemy isn't monsters—it's the reflected pain of your broken lives.

The size of an adventure is measured in Pins—a single session might be a 3-pin case, while longer scenarios extend to 7 or more. All are based on visualising the game as a corkboard.

The Burden of Baggage

In Cörk Børd, Baggage is the emotional and psychological damage your character accumulates over time. It’s not hit points or injuries—it’s guilt, grief, addiction, regret. Every clue you uncover, every truth you face, every horror you witness presses down on you—your Stability and Baggage measure how close you are to personal collapse.

Baggage turns your investigation into a personal risk. Solving the case might save lives, but it will cost you—your sleep, your sanity, your relationships. It’s a way to pace tension, reflect trauma, and drive character arcs without resorting to combat. Baggage is the slow unravelling that defines Cörk Børd. It’s not about slaying monsters. It’s about surviving your breakdown.

Mörk Borg is about bodies breaking. Cörk Børd is about lives shattering in slow motion. While Mörk Borg drowns you in blood and apocalypse, Cörk Børd wraps you in silence, shame, and decay. But both games embrace hopelessness, consequence, and a world that will not save you.

Baggage isn’t a departure from the Mörk Borg tone—it’s just a different kind of blunt instrument that reminds you that life's short and you don't have long to make your mark.

Contributors

Paul Baldowski lives in Manchester. By day, a business analyst. By night, he writes games in the dark. He’s worked on Symbaroum, Paranoia, Rivers of London, and Liminal. Since 2016, he’s published RPGs—Cthulhu Hack, The Dee Sanction, and Sanction—earning an ENnie nod along the way. Somewhere between deadlines, he fell hard for Nordic Noir. He hasn’t looked back.

All Rolled Up—founded by Fil Baldowski in 2013—is a gold ENnie award-winning company known for innovation in tabletop accessories. From the original All Rolled Up game roll to the ever-popular neoprene folding dice tray, Fil has made a lasting mark on the hobby. Since 2016, All Rolled Up has published and distributed Paul’s games, and since 2020, it’s also handled fulfilment for his Kickstarter campaigns.

Pledge Options

There are two basic levels to support: one digital and one physical. Everyone who backs at the physical level will also get the PDF.

• Digital edition - £12: This pledge level will offer a text-only PDF and a full version with layout, to ensure optimal accessibility.
• Hardcover edition - £24: This pledge level will include both a hardcover and the two PDFs.

Stretch Goals

Pledge Fulfilment

All Rolled Up will manage, process and handle all fulfilment activities.

Pledge Management: The All Rolled Up pledge manager will fulfil all physical or electronic products. As a backer, you can choose your add-ons and update your address details before shipping through the account dashboard on the All Rolled Up website.

Shipping and Customs

We will calculate the shipping costs after the Kickstarter campaign ends, taking into account the actual expenses for shipping your specific pledge and any add-ons you choose to include. 

General Shipping: Close to fulfilment time, you will be prompted to pay for shipping via All Rolled Up's Pledge Manager on the All Rolled Up website. This method enables us to be fair to all our backers, as shipping costs inevitably vary for each pledge. Kickstarter does not have a pledge management system, so we developed our own and successfully fulfilled seven campaigns with it.

EU Backers

We're offering Postal Delivered Duties Paid (PDDP) and IOSS as part of our International service. This service handles customs duties for parcels sent to certain EU member states, with a value of up to £135. This means Kickstarter customers will not be charged duty or charges for orders up to that value. You don't have to take any further action. If you live in an applicable EU country, the PDDP will be handled as part of the fulfilment process.

However, there are stipulations to this service. We cannot send items to a business address or workplace, which includes hotels, cafes, and other locations not defined as a residential address. Your parcel will be delayed and subject to customs fees, which are out of our control.

Customs Charge: We cannot refund customs charges, whether charged for delivery to a business address or where charged in error by the destination country. You will need to contest customer charges made in error with your customs office. We will be happy to provide proof of the fees paid at our end in support of your application to contest.

IOSS in Spain: The exception to customs duties paid will be Spain. Though we have been processing IOSS with these parcels, we have found that the customs offices are still charging customs on the parcels we send.

PDDP covers Germany, France, the Republic of Ireland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Cyprus, Malta, Austria, and Luxembourg (up to 150 euros). By the time we complete the campaign fulfilment, Sweden may be added to this list. For all other EU member states, we will use IOSS. This excludes Switzerland, Iceland or Norway.

US Backers

Backers in the United States can breathe a little easier. After careful consultation with our shipping providers, we can confirm that the book itself is covered.

If you pledge for the physical edition of Cörk Børd, you will not be met with hidden costs or the dreaded $80+ surcharge. Standard shipping applies—nothing more.

Check out the full Update.

Community

There's an active Cörk Børd community — and other Just Crunch games — on Discord.

In addition, you will find regular updates and posts across social media.

► Just Crunch Games Discord – https://discord.gg/ykeWeXJKPG

► Just Crunch Games on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@JustCrunchGames

► Just Crunch Games on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/justcrunchgames/

► Paul Baldowski on BlueSky – https://bsky.app/profile/paulbaldowski.bsky.social

Compatible with MORK BORG

Cörk Børd is an independent production by Just Crunch Games and All Rolled Up and is not affiliated with Ockult Örtmästare Games or Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the MÖRK BORG Third Party License.

Music from #Uppbeat | https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-cassette/it-took-over | License code: Y0QTH0ZGERHRZWVV. Video imagery from iStock, human-created stock imagery.

Risks and Commitments